Category Archives: Sea life

The Lummi Nation, an Indian tribe near Bellingham, recently
joined the 25-year-long struggle to bring the killer whale named
Lolita back to her home waters of Puget Sound, where she was
captured and removed 47 years ago.

The tribe’s involvement could change the nature of the ongoing
battle entirely, according to Howard Garrett of Orca Network, who
has been leading the effort.

Trailer to a movie in
production about the Lummi Nation's effort to bring Lolita
home.

“I feel like we are at a whole new level of synergy and mutual
support as we bring out our passions and abilities and professional
skills,” Howie told me during a phone call from Miami, where he and
Lummi leaders were visiting the 52-year-old whale.

Lolita, also known by her Native American name Tokitae, has
lived all these years in a relatively small tank at Miami
Seaquarium, performing twice each day for visitors to the marine
park.

Members of the Lummi Nation contend that what happened to
Tokitae was a kidnapping, and her aquatic prison violates native
traditions that hold orcas in high esteem. An estimated 40-50 orcas
were captured or killed during roundups during the late 1960s and
early ‘70s, officials say, and Tokitae is the last living orca
taken from Puget Sound.

“There is no way they should be getting away with putting these
mammals in captivity for a show,” Steve Solomon, Lummi Natural
Resources Commissioner, said in video segment for
WPLG Channel-10 News in Miami. “Those are our brothers and
sisters that were taken.”

Some have compared Lolita’s capture and removal with actions
surrounding Indian boarding schools, where Native American children
were taken after being forced to leave their families and give up
their native culture.

Orca Network and other groups have proposed bringing Lolita back
to Puget Sound and caring for her in a blocked-off cove on Orcas
Island until she is ready to head out into open waters, possibly
joining her own family. Orca experts believe that her mother is
Ocean Sun, or L-25, and that Lolita would be able to recognize the
voice of her mom and other L-pod whales.

The cost of the proposed sea pen on Orcas Island and moving the
whale by airplane is estimated to cost about $3 million. Howie said
he has no doubt that the money can be raised, especially with the
help of the Lummi Tribe. Orcas Island is just across Rosario Strait
from the Lummi Reservation west of Bellingham.

There is some talk that the Lummi Nation could use its treaty
rights to force action if the Miami Seaquarium continues to resist.
The Lummi are signatories to the Point Elliott Treaty, which
guarantees the right of native people to hunt, fish and gather
shellfish. Courts have ruled that tribes also have a vested right
in protecting the habitat, but their moral argument to bring Lolita
home might be stronger than their legal one.

Eric Eimstad, general manager of Miami Seaquarium, said the
killer whales in Puget Sound are listed as endangered, and there
are clear concerns about their lack of food, boat noise and
chemical runoff.

“The focus should not be on a whale that is thriving in her
environment in Miami,” Eimstad said in a
statement.

“After more than 47 years, moving Lolita from her pool, which
she shares with Pacific white-sided dolphins, to a sea pen in Puget
Sound or anywhere else would be very stressful to her and
potentially fatal,” he continued. “it would be reckless and cruel
to treat her life as an experiment and jeopardize her health to
consider such a move.”

Experts can be found on both sides of the issue, and nobody
denies that Lolita’s tank is smaller than any captive orca habitat
in the U.S.

While in Miami today, Howie was able to watch Lolita in action.
He told me that he wore a floppy hat and sunglasses to escape
notice, since he has been kicked out of Miami Seaquarium several
times for being an “activist.”

“She is looking good,” Howie said of Lolita. “It was encouraging
to see that she is not weak. In fact, she is strong. She made four
breaches up and out of the water.”

That’s a good indication that this whale could not only survive
a flight across the country, but she could thrive, he said. Any
treatments she gets, such as antibiotics, would be continued as
long as necessary.

Meanwhile, the Lummi contingent is planning a 30-day journey
throughout the country to raise awareness about the plight of
Lolita. They will take along a large totem pole of an orca, which
is now being carved.

Former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, who is hoping to be
Florida’s next governor, has signed onto the campaign to bring
Lolita home. He opened a press conference yesterday in which he was
joined by numerous supporters, including Lummi leaders.

“The time is right to do the right thing and finally free this
captured endangered whale,” Levine said. “It was my honor to host
the Lummi Nation on this historic day, as we continue the fight to
bring Tokitae home to her native waters.”

The first video on this page is a trailer for a movie in
production. Producers Geoff Schaaf and Dennie Gordon of Los Angeles
are following the Lummi involvement in the tale of Tokitae, which
they say is emblematic of the larger story about saving the salmon
and all the creatures that live in the Salish Sea.

The second and third videos make up an excellent two-part series
by reporter Louis Aguirre of Miami’s WPLG-Channel 10 News. He digs
into the controversy over Lolita, including a visit to Puget Sound
and what could be Lolita’s temporary home near Orca Island.

In Chicago, it has become a tradition to dye the Chicago River
bright green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, as shown in a
timelapse video featured by
ABC News. But some waterways are naturally green, so I have
posted eight videos from throughout the world to show these natural
wonders.

Huge crowds of people visit the Chicago River each year to see
the color change, which lasts about five hours, according to a
report by Jennifer Wood in
Mental Floss.

At one time, a green dye was used as needed to identify sources
of sewage flowing into the river, Jennifer reports. The result was
an occasional green splotch seen in the river. In 1962, a member of
the local plumbers union thought it would be a good idea to dye the
entire river green for St. Patrick’s Day. It has since become an
annual tradition — although in 1966 the dye was changed to a
nontoxic vegetable-based coloring at the insistence of
environmentalists.

Today, environmentalists are still grumbling about artificially
turning the river green, not so much because of damage to the
ecosystem — which is really unknown — but because the river is much
healthier than it has been in 150 years, according to a report by
Steven Dahlman in Loop North
News.

“I think [it] sends a message to people that the river is not
alive,” said Margaret Frisbie, executive director of
Friends of the Chicago River. “Dyeing the river green does not
respect that resource.”

In a story written for
Smithsonian magazine, Jennifer Billock reports that no dye is
needed if you really want to enjoy St. Patrick’s Day in or around a
green waterway. The source of the green color varies from one place
to another and may include natural minerals, algae growth or even
optical illusions based on reflections or depth.

Jennifer talked to Rick Stumpf, an oceanographer who said one of
his favorite places is Florida Bay in the Keys, where the green
color is a reflection of seagrass just a few feet underwater.

Our tour of green waterways begins with Lake
Carezza, in South Tyrol, Italy. The lake is fed from
underground springs, and the level of the lake changes with the
seasons.

According to a local fairy tale, a wizard fell in love with a
beautiful water nymph while watching her braid her hair at the edge
of the lake. To get her attention, a witch advised him to dress up
as a jewel merchant and cast a rainbow across the lake. He followed
her instructions except that he forgot to change his clothes. The
water nymph realized his true identity and disappeared into the
lake. In frustration, the wizard destroyed the rainbow, which fell
into the lake, and then he tossed all of his jewels into the water,
leaving the lake with its unusual colors.

Wai-O-Tapu is a lake in an 18-square-mile
geothermal area in New Zealand’s Taupo Volcanic Zone. The green
color of the water, which is somewhat milky and yellowish, is due
to particles of sulfur floating in the water.

The area has been protected as a scenic reserve since 1931 and
includes a tourism attraction known as Wai-O-Tapu Thermal
Wonderland. Marked hiking trails provide visitors access to natural
hot springs and mud pools.

The Verzasca River in Switzerland is a 19-mile
river known for its turquoise-colored water and colorful rocks. The
swift river, which flows into Lake Maggiore, is popular with scuba
divers.

The green colors are provided by natural algae growing in the
water as well as the reflection of vegetation along the
shoreline.

Ambergris Caye, the largest island in Belize,
offers the sea-green colors of a tropical paradise. It is mainstay
for tourists who wish to swim or dive in the Caribbean Sea.
Visitors can enjoy the marine life of Belize Barrier Reef, the
longest reef system in North America, second in the world after the
Great Barrier Reef of Australia.

Blue Spring State Park features the largest
spring on Florida’s St. Johns River, a critical winter refuge for
manatees. To protect the manatees, the spring pool is closed from
Nov. 15 to March 15.

From the pool, a vertical cave plunges down to a room about 90
feet deep. At about 120 feet down, the cave constricts and water
pours swiftly out of the spring, which produces about 165 million
gallons of water per day.

In addition to the pool, the park includes a historic home and
offers boat tours, hiking trails and camping sites.

Lake Quilotoa in Ecuador is a deep crater lake
in the Andes formed by the collapse of a volcano following an
eruption about 600 years ago. The green color is caused by
dissolved minerals.

In five hours, visitors can hike around the volcano’s caldera,
which is about two miles across. Pack mules and guides are
available in and around the village of Quilotoa.

Sproat Lake is located in the center of
Vancouver Island in British Columbia. In addition to lakeside
homes, three provincial parks are located along the shore.

Sproat Lake Provincial Park features a variety of trails,
including one trail that reaches the eastern side of the lake. A
wall of rock carvings, named K’ak’awin, depict mythological
creatures. The age of the petroglyphs is unknown.

Abyss Pool is the name of a hot spring in the
West Thumb Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park. In 1883, a
visitor to the park called the pool “a great, pure, sparkling
sapphire rippling with heat.”

The pool is about 50 feet deep. A geyser in the pool had no
record of eruption until 1987, when the first eruption was followed
by several others until June 1992. The eruptions were up to 100
feet high.

In a way, some of Puget Sound’s most serious ecological problems
have been hiding in plain sight. I have been learning a lot lately
about plankton, an incredibly diverse collection of microscopic
organisms that drift through the water, forming the base of the
food web.

Sources of nitrogen in Puget
Sound (click to enlarge)Graphic: Washington Department of
Ecology

To put it simply, the right kinds of plankton help to create a
healthy population of little fish that feed bigger fish that feed
birds and marine mammals, including the endangered Southern
Resident killer whales. On the other hand, the wrong kinds of
plankton can disrupt the food web, stunt the growth of larger
creatures and sometimes poison marine animals.

OK, that’s a bit of an oversimplification, but Puget Sound
researchers are just beginning to understand the profound
importance of a healthy planktonic community to support a large
part of the food web. That’s one of the main points that I try to
bring out in five stories published today in the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound. I
am grateful to the many researchers who have shared their knowledge
with me.

These stories tie together several major issues all related to
nutrients — mainly nitrogen — that feed the marine phytoplankton,
which use their chlorophyll to take energy from the sun as they
grow and multiply. In the spring and summer, too much nitrogen can
mean too much plankton growth. In turn, excess plankton can lead to
low-oxygen conditions, ocean acidification and other significant
problems.

The complex interplay of planktonic species with larger life
forms in Puget Sound is still somewhat of a mystery to researchers
trying to understand the food web. As part of the effort, the
Washington Department of Ecology is working on a computer model to
show how excess nitrogen can trigger low-oxygen conditions in the
most vulnerable parts of the Salish Sea, such as southern Hood
Canal and South Puget Sound.

Stormwater is often cited as the most serious problem facing
Puget Sound, and we generally think of bacteria and toxic chemicals
flowing into the waterway and causing all sorts of problems for the
ecosystem. But stormwater also brings in nitrogen derived from
fertilizers, animal wastes and atmospheric deposits from burning
fossil fuels. Stormwater flows also pick up natural sources of
nitrogen from plants and animals that end up in streams.

Sewage treatment plants are another major source of human
nitrogen. Except for a few exceptions, not much has been done to
reduce the release of nutrients from sewage-treatment plants, which
provide not only nitrogen but also micronutrients such as vitamins
and minerals. Some experts suspect that nutrients other than
nitrogen help to determine which types of plankton will dominate at
any given time.

I plan to follow and report on new scientific developments
coming out of studies focused on the base of the food web.
Meanwhile, I hope you will take time to read this package of related
stories:

Salmon harvests in Puget Sound have been shared between Indian
and non-Indian fishermen since the 1970s, when the courts ruled
that treaties guarantee tribal members half the total catch.

Now a third party — Puget Sound’s endangered orcas — could take
a seat at the negotiations table, at least in a figurative sense,
as their shortage of food becomes a critical issue.

It isn’t at all clear how fishing seasons could be structured to
help the Southern Resident killer whales, but the issue was
discussed seriously at some length yesterday, when the 2018 salmon
forecasts were presented to sport and commercial fishers. Thus
began the annual negotiations between state and tribal salmon
managers to set up this year’s fishing seasons.

General areas, in blue, where
fishing closures in British Columbia are planned to provide extra
salmon for Southern Resident killer whales.Map: Department of Fisheries and Oceans

Penny Becker, a wildlife manager with the Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife, said a steady decline in the body mass of the
Southern Residents has been observed, as the population fell to a
30-year low of 76 animals. People are calling for emergency
measures, she said, noting that both Gov. Jay Inslee and the
Legislature are working on ideas to protect the whales. See
Water Ways Feb. 23 and
Water Ways Feb. 17 and the
Encyclopedia of Puget Sound, Nov. 2, 2017.

Concerns are running equally high in British Columbia, where the
orcas spend much of their time in the Strait of Georgia. The
Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans has proposed an
experiment with fishing closures this year in four areas frequented
by the orcas:

Mouth of the Fraser River

West side of Pender Island

South side of Saturna Island, and

Strait of Juan de Fuca

“The primary objective of the proposed measures is to improve
chinook salmon availability for SRKW by decreasing potential
fishery competition, as well as minimizing physical and acoustic
disturbance in key foraging areas to the extent possible,” states a
“discussion paper” (PDF 1.9 mb) released Feb. 15.

The closures would be in place from May through September this
year, with increased monitoring to measure potential benefits to
the whales. Comments on the proposal are being taken until March
15.

Canadians also are working with ship owners to see if noise can
be reduced significantly by slowing down large vessels moving
through the Salish Sea. Previous studies have shown that noise
reduces the ability of whales to communicate and to find food
through echolocation. Experts are compiling the results of the
“Haro Strait Vessel Slowdown Trial” conducted last year.

One bill in the Washington Legislature would require boaters to
slow down to 7 knots when in the vicinity of killer whales.

Limiting fishing in specific areas of Puget Sound, such as the
west side of San Juan Island, could be implemented through
state-tribal negotiations, Penny said. The closures would occur
during summer when chinook salmon — the orcas’ primary prey — are
in the area. One option would be to implement the closures on
certain days of the week.

Some people have talked about giving the orcas a clean break
from whale watchers, and that could involve excluding whale-watch
boats from salmon-rich areas at the same time as the fishing
closures.

“We’re looking for creative solutions to make this work within
our constraints,” Penny told the group.

One fisherman at the meeting said every person on the water
should automatically turn off his motor and sit still when whales
are approaching. It’s a courtesy to help the killer whales find
fish, he said, and anyway the fish are not going to bite on one’s
line while whales are around. Generally, they don’t stay long in
one place.

One bill in the Legislature would help the Southern Residents by
increasing hatchery production of chinook salmon in Puget Sound.
Reaction to the idea has been mixed, because hatchery salmon have
been known to affect the fitness and genetic makeup of wild salmon.
If approved, the boost in hatchery production would likely be a
temporary solution.

Sport fishermen generally like the idea of increased hatchery
production, because they would be encouraged to catch all the
hatchery fish not eaten by killer whales.

The hatchery bill, HB
2417, was approved unanimously by the House Agriculture and
Natural Resources Committee. No further action has been taken so
far, but its provisions could be attached to the supplementary
budget with funds specified for hatchery production.

Tuesday’s meeting in Lacey launched the beginning of the
negotiations between state and tribal salmon managers, a process
known as North of Falcon. The name comes the fishery management
area from Cape Falcon in Oregon north to the Canadian border. The
full schedule of
meetings and related documents can be found on the WDFW
website.

Forecasts approved by WDFW and the tribes predict poor returns
of several salmon stocks this year in Puget Sound, the Pacific
Ocean and the Columbia River, resulting in limited fishing
opportunities.

“We will definitely have to be creative in developing salmon
fisheries this year,” Kyle Adicks, salmon policy lead for WDFW,
said in a news
release. “I encourage people to get involved and provide input
on what they see as the priorities for this season’s
fisheries.”

Warm ocean conditions and low streamflows in recent years
affected several salmon stocks returning this year. As ocean
conditions return to normal, experts hope for improved salmon runs
in years to come.

A total of about 557,000 coho returning to Puget Sound is about
6 percent below the average over the past 10 years. Extremely low
numbers predicted for the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Snohomish
River are expected to force managers to limit fishing in those
areas.

While hatchery chinook returning to Puget Sound are expected to
be 38 percent higher than last year, the need to protect
“threatened” wild chinook could mean ongoing fishing restrictions
in many areas.

Next month, NOAA, which oversees threatened and endangered
species, is expected to provide guidance for managing this year’s
fisheries, including possible discussions about protecting Southern
Resident killer whales.

Researchers working on innumerable scientific investigations
throughout the world continue to present their findings in new and
interesting ways, often apart from the usual charts and graphs.
Some have turned to animation, others to interactive graphics and
some to the medium of sound — a process called sonification.

Jens Hegg of the University of Idaho has collaborated with
several musical composers to turn the migration of young chinook
salmon into a musical score — although it doesn’t exactly have a
beat you want to dance to.

In the first video on this page, you can close your eyes and
imagine that you are standing at the mouth of the Snake River
facing upstream, Jens advises in an email. To get the full effect,
you need to listen with headphones. Fish moving on the Upper Snake
River are represented by notes that sound the farthest away, the
Clearwater River somewhat closer and the Lower Snake River closer
still.

“The ocean is at your back, so as they enter the ocean, the
washy sound sounds as if it is either behind you or directly
between your ears,” Jens told me.

“Each river has it’s own set of tones that build a chord,” he
continued. “The YouTube video uses the same WAV recording every
time, but the actual sonification program randomly assigns fish to
a new tone each time it is played, so that the music actually
changes and is slightly different each time it is played while
maintaining the same meaning.”

I have to confess that I’ve listened to this recording more than
a dozen times and I’m still trying to visualize the movement in my
mind. The map on the video actually helps with the understanding,
but that’s not the movement of fish on the river that I’m trying to
visualize. Jens said the program was set up so that fish in the
Upper Snake are heard in the right ear; fish in the Lower Snake are
heard in the left ear; and fish in the Clearwater are heard in the
center.

Some sonification efforts result in music that is quite
enjoyable to listen to. See
Water Ways, Jan. 1, 2016. But if the point is to convey
information, then the underlying music can sometimes be a
distraction.

Jens told me that his experiments with sound originated in a
roundabout way, somewhat out of desperation, as he tried to design
his doctoral dissertation to meet the cross-disciplinary
requirements for the program in Water Resources Science and
Management.

“I had been told that the geology/ecology combination I had used
for my master’s in the same program was not quite interdisciplinary
enough, so I was in search of other possibilities,” he said.

Jens had read a newspaper profile about Jonathan
Middleton of Eastern Washington University, who was creating
music from protein data. He was finding that the people could
discern variations in complex protein structure more easily with
sonic rather than visual clues.

Jens always enjoyed music. He even writes his own songs. (See
second video on this page.) Combining music and scientific data
provided a fascinating challenge. “Nobody could say this wouldn’t
be interdisciplinary,” he noted, “and it incorporates something I
enjoy already, so it seemed like something worth pursuing.”

The data needed to create the sonic composition comes from Jens’
extensive study of salmon migration based on the ear bones of fish,
called otoliths. Otoliths are composed of chemicals that build up
over time as a fish grows. Rivers have their own chemical
signatures, which are captured in the otoliths, so the movement of
salmon can be determined by the chemical record stored in their ear
bones.

Understanding the timing of salmon migration can help
researchers figure out why some populations are more successful
than others, especially as climate change shifts the timing of
streamflows and alters the temperature and dissolved oxygen
levels.

Mounds of otolith data were converted to notes with the help of
Middleton at Eastern and Ben Luca
Robertson at the University of Virginia. Middleton had
developed a software program to help researchers turn their data
into sound. Courtney Flatt of Northwest Public Broadcasting
separated out some of the individual sounds in a piece she produced
for
Earthfix. Listen below.

1. Tracking Salmon With Musical
Notes

–

Part of Jens’ research was to see if people could tell when the
sound pattern changed, thus discerning the movement of fish from
one place to another. The complexity of the sound reduced the
ability of listeners to distinguish transitions, according to a new
report by Jens and his collaborators in the journal
Heliyon. Check out the additional sounds and animations in the
“supplementary content” at the end.

It also turned out that people were able to describe the changes
more accurately if they were not watching a related animation. One
reason could be that the visual clues caused people to divide their
attention, focusing less on the sound.

“We have a long way to go before a sonification of a large
number of fish can clearly indicate movement,” Jens told me in his
email. “Our paper shows that people can accurately distinguish
movement of individuals played alone, two at a time, or three at a
time. But we haven’t spent as much time optimizing the sonification
for a large number of fish.

“Knowing how it is set up helps in interpreting it,” he said.
“On repeated listenings, you can hear times where larger numbers of
fish are all moving at once from one place to another. These are
the kinds of trends we want to highlight in terms of understanding
salmon migration timing.”

The proposed Orca Protection Act, which was declared dead last
week in the Washington State Senate, has sprung back to life with
the addition of a budget provision that offers a new chance of
passage.

Photo: Capt. Jim Maya,
2013

The newly resuscitated bill, approved by the Senate Ways and
Means Committee, is nearly identical to the original bill, which
includes special protections for the endangered Southern Resident
killer whales. If approved by both houses, the legislation would
impose new restrictions on boaters and drone pilots, increase
on-water patrols by state law-enforcement officers and support
studies regarding what people can do to save the whales.

The original legislation died on Feb. 14 when the Senate failed
to approve it before a deadline passed for bills that had no budget
impact, as I described in
Water Ways last Saturday. The bill was revived this week when
its sponsor, Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas Island, used a procedural
maneuver to add a new budget provision.

Specifically, Ranker proposed a $5 increase in the cost of
special
vehicle license plates that depict endangered species,
including orcas. The extra money would be used by the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife for marine patrols and other
orca-related activities.

As a result of Ranker’s maneuver, the original bill, SB
6268, will get a new bill number, SB
5886, which is a bill originally submitted by Ranker in March
2017 with no text. A wholesale amendment on Thursday planted the
text of the Orca Protection Act into SB 5886, which still carries
the title “Relating to natural resources.”

Dave Pringle, Democratic policy analyst who works closely with
Ranker, told me that the senator heard support for the maneuver
from fellow legislators who wanted a chance to vote on the bill.
Ranker expects it to pass the Senate with strong support from
fellow Democrats as well as a number of Republicans. Action on the
Senate floor could come next week, when the bill would move on to
the House.

The bill describes the 76 Southern Resident orcas as “critically
endangered” with a population falling to a 36-year low. The whales
are important to the ecosystem and to the culture of Washington
tribes. The Southern Residents also provide the foundation of a
$60-million tourist industry, according to the bill.

The legislation calls for at least 100 law-enforcement patrols
during whale-watching season. Remotely controlled aircraft, known
as drones, would not be allowed to come within 200 yards of any
Southern Resident orca — which is the same limitation for vessels
under existing law. The bill also would require vessels to slow to
7 knots within 400 yards of a whale. Current law has no speed
limit.

The revised bill adds an exception from the requirements for
distance and speed when vessel operators cannot tell that they are
too close to the whales because of fog, rain or other weather
conditions.

The bill also would require the Department of Fish and Wildlife
to make recommendations about what further actions could be taken
by the Legislature and state agencies to help restore the orca
population. It also calls for meetings and collaborations with
wildlife officials in British Columbia to discuss protecting and
restoring the orcas.

The picture by Grant Thomas won first place among British
photographers in the annual Underwater Photographer of the Year
contest. With more than 5,000 entries, the competition is becoming
one of the most interesting photo contests in the world.

“I chose Loch Lomond as the location for this shot due to its
idyllic scenery, water access and friendly swans,” said Thomas, who
now lives in New Zealand. “My initial idea was to frame a split
shot of one swan feeding below the surface. But when I noticed how
comfortable they were around me, I was confident, with some
patience, I could get that magical shot of the two.”

Martin Edge, one of three judges in the contest, noted how this
photograph impressed the judges more and more as they looked at it.
The split between water and air forms a perfect curve at the
traditional one-third line, with the scene punctuated by blue sky
and puffy clouds, he said.

“The eyes have just enough base at the bottom of the frame to
look into,” he added. “Like archways, the curved neck of both swans
draws the eye even further into the frame.”

Out of the 5,000 images, 110 were called out for awards and
featured in the
2018 UPY Yearbook (PDF 37.2 mb), which can be downloaded from
the UPY website. A video presenting all the winners can be viewed
at the bottom of this page.

“I do not believe that you will find a better selection of
underwater images anywhere else, either online, in magazines,
books, journals or any other publication I can think of,” said
Edge, who has published several of his own books on underwater
photography. “In my opinion, this particular edition is a universal
experience in superior underwater imagery.

“Since the conception of this competition four years ago, we
have seen a number of groundbreaking techniques, which have
inspired and encouraged other creative photographers to continue to
push the boundaries,” he added.

Speaking of pushing boundaries, the photograph judged to be the
overall best in the contest this year is a composite panoramic
photograph of a shipwreck by German photographer Tobias Friedrich.
One can see amazing details on the cargo deck of the SS
Thistlegorm, a British merchant ship sunk by German aircraft in
World War II. Trucks carrying motorcycles remain as they were
before the ship sank 77 years ago.

The image simply does not work on a small scale, so I’m not
showing it on this page. But you can click and zoom in on the
award-winning photograph titled “Cycle
War.”

The winner in the “Behaviour” category is Filippo Borghi of
Italy, who spent two days in shallow water near Osezaki, Japan, to
get the shot of a cormorant with a sardine in its mouth.

Edge’s note to the photographer: “Filippo, this is one of my top
four images in this year’s competition of UPY. Flawless in every
way. Congratulations!”

A picture of three seahorses together in perfect profile was the
winner in the “Macro” category. Photographer Shane Gross of Canada
placed his off-camera strobe and flashlight on a small tripod
behind the trio and waited for them to turn the right way, as the
sun set and plankton began to rain down.

One of my favorite photos among the winners is a “highly
commended” image in the “Macro” category showing a black-saddle
snake eel with a tiny shrimp on the end of its nose. I’ve been
writing a lot lately about the Puget Sound food web, and I’ve
learned that a key to successful energetics is the size of a
predator compared to its prey. This miraculous photo, taken by
Italian Marchione dott. Giacomo in Indonesia, captures in fine
detail this sense of scale.

From a photo of a tiny shrimp, I’d like to jump to a “highly
commended” shot of a killer whale in the “Wide Angle” category. The
picture was taken near Skjervoya, Norway, by Tobia Friedrich, the
same photographer who revealed the shipwreck Thistlegorm. He
noticed a pod of killer whales circling a net filled with herring
and used a 8-15 mm fisheye lens to provide a mystical feeling.

“This is an image that transports you to a wondrous moment in an
extreme location,” said contest judge Alex Mustard. “Tobi had the
inspiration not only to shoot the orca, but to also tell the bigger
story with the snow-covered mountains surrounding the fjord.”

The winner in the “Portrait” category showed a sand tiger shark
in the midst of a “ball” of bait fish near the wreck of the
Caribsea off North Carolina. U.S. photographer Tanya Houppermans
laid on her back and aimed her camera upward until the fish parted
and she got a clear shot of the shark’s white underbelly.

In another engaging photo by a U.S. photographer, multiple
elements — colorful coral, intense sunset and human silhouettes —
were all put into a single frame by Brook Peterson. The image,
which took third place in “Wide Angle,” was captured in Egypt’s Red
Sea.

“This lovely sunset split shot is enhanced with the other
snorkelers on the pier,” wrote judge Martin Edge. “Most of us would
have avoided them, but Brook had other intentions, which made for a
dynamic different image.”

A whimsical image of an underwater campfire — fire under ice —
came “highly commended” by the judges in the “Wide Angle” category.
Photographer Pekka Tuuri of Finland pulled together a bunch of
props to create this picture. Dry ice was used to create bubbles,
and a piece of orange gel over a dive light provided the proper
color for the “fire.” Pieces of firewood were nailed together, and
the sausage came from a local gas station near Kuortane , Finland,
the site the frozen-over Kaatiala quarry.

One of the photographs surprised me as an optical illusion,
although that was not mentioned in the notes on the photo. When I
first looked at the image called “Battle
of the Tompots” (click to view), I saw two owl-like eyes
staring at me. It looked like the creature had a yellow beak and
whispy feathers over both eyes. But this was actually two fish
biting each other’s lips as part of a mating battle. The photo, by
Henley Spiers, was the winner in the “British Waters Macro”
category.

State legislation that would increase protection for Puget
Sound’s killer whales died this week amidst confusing action on the
Senate floor.

Now, orca advocates are pushing a narrower bill approved by the
House to limit remote-controlled aircraft around whales, while they
also hope for a $3-million budget appropriation to support other
orca protection measures.

J pod, one of the three
Southern Resident killer whale groups, has recently spent time in
the San Juan Islands.Photo: Dave Ellifrit, Center for Whale Research, taken under
federal permits: NMFS:15569-01, DFO SARA: 388.

Whether people should be allowed to fly a drone around the
endangered Southern Resident orcas seems to be the issue stirring
up the most attention in the Legislature — although it is a small
part of the overall effort.

Current law prohibits a “vessel or other object” from
approaching the Southern Residents closer than 200 yards. Using
that language, state fisheries enforcement officers have issued at
least two citations to people flying their drones over orcas in the
San Juan Islands, according to Sgt. Russ Mullins of Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife.

In one case filed in 2015, a Mercer Island photographer appealed
the citation, saying the law does not apply to drones. The
prosecutor in San Juan County eventually dropped the case while
requesting a legal clarification from the state Attorney General’s
Office.

The
opinion from the AG’s Office says the 200-yard limitation for
“other objects” should apply to drones flying over the killer
whales. The final word, however, would need to come from a judge in
a state court.

To eliminate any confusion, Rep. Kristine Lytton, D-Anacortes,
last year introduced a bill that would prohibit “unmanned aerial
systems” from approaching orcas closer than 200 yards in any
direction. The one exception would be if the drone inadvertently
flies over the whales while traveling to an unrelated destination.
See info
for HB 1031.

“My intention is to keep drones away from an icon of our state
and to prevent the almost harassment, as some people in my district
feel, of our orca whales,” Rep. Lytton testified after submitting
her bill.

The concern is not so much about one or two drones, although any
could crash and harm a whale, Sgt. Mullins told me. But if the
rules do not keep drones away from the whales, it will be only a
matter of time before lots and lots of whale watchers bring their
drones out to photograph the orcas up close while watching from a
boat.

“There is already enough drama and confusion out there,” he
said. “We don’t need someone driving his boat as well as his drone
around these whales.”

Some lawmakers, including Rep. Jeff Morris, D-Mount Vernon, said
they would prefer to broaden the legislation to keep drones from
operating around any threatened and endangered species. But no
changes have been made so far, perhaps because the specific law
being revised is focused entirely on the protection of killer
whales.

The bill to protect orcas from drones passed the House last week
on a vote of 67 to 31, with all Democrats in support of the
legislation along with about a third of the House Republicans.

In the Senate, Democrats decided to take a broader approach to
the issue of orca protection. Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas Island,
introduced a bill to complement Gov. Jay Inslee’s proposed orca
protection and restoration initiative.

The legislation, SB
6268, would more than double the number of marine patrols
around the orcas, essentially protecting the animals from
aggressive boaters and drone operators anytime the whales are in
Puget Sound. Studies have shown that the mere presence of patrol
boats leads to greater compliance with the rules, which are
designed to allow the whales to find food more easily and to engage
in more normal social interactions. The patrols also serve to
educate boaters about how to act around the whales.

The cost for the nearly full-time patrols is estimated at about
$475,000 per year. If the patrols help save the whales from
extinction, it would allow a continuation of the
multi-million-dollar tourism industry, not to mention the
ecological importance of orcas and the joy that people experience
when seeing whales.

Other provisions of the bill would require boaters to slow down
to 7 knots anytime they come within 400 yards of a Southern
Resident orca. Also included are proposed studies to see how
human-generated noise affects the orcas, along with at least one
meeting to better coordinate protection and recovery strategies
between Washington state and British Columbia in Canada.

The Senate bill appeared to be sailing through the Legislature
until Wednesday — the last day to approve bills that originated in
the Senate. Democrats were anxious about approving two bills before
the end of the day — one dealing with student debt and the other
with basic education funding. They thought the so-called Orca
Protection Act would be approved with barely a bump in the
road.

The first amendment offered to the orca bill was the “ominously
numbered amendment 666,” as Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib dubbed it while
calling on the amendment’s author, Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside.
The hostile amendment would remove any prohibition against using
drones around killer whales.

“The orcas are a really a big tourism attraction in the Puget
Sound,” Honeyford told the chamber. “This would allow those
tourists who have unmanned aircraft or drones or whatever you want
to call them to be able to fly them. They are electric, and they
are quiet, and they can take pictures. I believe it would be a
great increase in tourism.”

With an eye toward the clock, the Democrats decided not to fight
the amendment. They knew that the House bill was coming later to
deal with drones, and they apparently hoped to get quick approval
of the Orca Protection Act. After all, everyone was still speaking
in favor of it.

As you can see in the video above, the Democrats were talking
fast. But Republicans along with Sen. Tim Sheldon, a right-leaning
Democrat from Hoodsport, appeared to be taking their time.
Democrats finally gave up and pulled the bill, essentially killing
it for this year.

The original bill to limit drones around the orcas, which
originated in the House, is still alive after House passage. It is
scheduled to be heard on Feb. 20 by the Senate Committee on Energy,
Environment & Technology.

Some aspects of the Senate bill, such as the extra patrols
around the orcas, could be implemented through the budget,
according to Sen. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, who chairs
the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

The House bill is titled, “Concerning the use of unmanned aerial
systems near certain protected marine species.” That title does not
leave much leeway to resuscitate the Senate bill by heavily
amending the House bill, Sen. Rolfes told me.

Still, other efforts to protect the orcas could be accomplished
with legislative funding of Gov. Inslee’s Southern Resident killer
whale recovery program. He is seeking $3 million from the general
fund for the next two years.

The governor’s proposal goes well beyond the idea of extra
patrols around the whales. Included is increased hatchery
production of chinook salmon, the orcas’ primary food; restoration
of chinook salmon habitat in streams and estuaries; and steps to
reduce seal and sea lion predation on chinook, which are also on
the Endangered Species List.

Inslee’s budget proposal also calls for developing oil spill
plans to help the orcas in an emergency, since many experts believe
that an oil spill could drive the whales to extinction faster than
any other problem they face.

“Funding orca recovery is an urgent issue that cannot wait
another legislative session,” said Mindy Roberts, director of
People for Puget Sound, a division of Washington Environmental
Council. “Our region knows all too well the pressures the orcas
face. They are starving because they don’t have enough salmon to
feed on; toxics in their bodies are released when they go hungry;
and vessels are interfering with their abilities to feed and
communicate.”

As she told me in an email, “We will be looking for ways to
provide emergency funding for short-term solutions identified in
the bills that died and in the governor’s budget proposal.”

Among the wonders of nature in Puget Sound is a chunky little
fish with bulging eyes called a plainfin midshipman. The species
includes two very different types of males, and one type tries to
attract a mate by emitting a continuous humming sound for up to an
hour before stopping.

An hour-long mating call is rather remarkable, considering that
most animals use short intermittent bursts of sound followed by
periods of rest. Until recently, scientists were not sure how the
midshipman could keep its call going so long.

When large numbers of midshipman are calling at the same time,
the effect can be disconcerting. Years ago, folks living near
Quilcene on Hood Canal reported an eerie humming sound that kept
them awake at night. Since Quilcene is located near the Navy’s
acoustic-testing range on Dabob Bay, some speculated that the Navy
was up to something.

Other people living along the shores of Puget Sound have
reported the same strange humming sound from time to time.
Midshipman appear to be the primary prey of bald eagles that
congregate along Big Beef Creek near Seabeck each spring before the
first salmon runs provide larger fish to eat. Do you remember the
award-winning photo by Bonnie Block featured in the
Kitsap Sun?

Plainfin midshipman caught in a
beach seine off Bainbridge Island while surveying for surf smelt //
Photo: U.S. Geological survey

Hums produced by Type-I males can be heard great distances
underwater, all the better to attract mates in murky waters. The
sound is created when the fish contracts and relaxes the muscles
around its swimbladder, causing the gas-filled organ to
vibrate.

The contractions in the midshipman are extremely rapid, up to
100 times per second, or some 360,000 times during an hour-long
call, according to Lawrence C. Rome, professor of biology at the
University of Pennsylvania who has published a new paper in the
Journal of
General Physiology.

“The midshipman swimbladder muscle generates more contractions
per hour than any other known vertebrate muscle,” Rome commented in
a news release from
Rockefeller University Press.

Muscle contractions are triggered by the release of calcium ions
into the muscle tissue. In other species, the calcium ions are
pumped back into storage before the next contraction. But the speed
of the contractions in the midshipman has forced researchers to
look for another explanation. The secret turns out to be the tiny
amount of calcium needed to cause a contraction — just one-eighth
as much as in the Atlantic toadfish, a related species.

“The small amount of calcium released per stimulus is the key
element that permits the calcium pumps in midshipman swimbladder
muscle to keep up over long periods of high-frequency stimulation,”
Rome said. “The combination of fast calcium pumping and small
calcium release permits the midshipman to maintain the correct
balance of calcium ions during its long-lasting mating call.”

One mystery still remains, he added. How do such low calcium
levels cause the swimbladder to contract with enough force to
generate the distinctive hum heard over great distances?

The name midshipman apparently comes from having a series of
photophores — light=producing organs — along its sides used to
attract prey. Someone apparently thought they looked like buttons
on a naval uniform, according to an entry in Wikipedia.

Midshipman fish are nocturnal, swimming just above the seabed at
night and burying themselves in the mud or sand during the day.
When out of water, these unusual fish have the ability to breathe
air.

While type-I males use sound to attract females, type-II males
have a different reproductive strategy. Their sex organs are seven
times larger than those of their type-I counterparts.

Fishing, which I hear was fairly straightforward in days gone
by, has grown more and more complicated in today’s modern world,
with growing concerns about fish extinction, poaching and the
protection of natural resources.

Technology cannot return us to a simpler time, but there is an
event scheduled for next weekend that is designed to make life
easier for those interested in fishing, research or environmental
protection.

Known as Fishackathon, the two-day event brings together
thousands of designers, software developers and fishing experts.
Seattle is one of about 40 locations throughout the world where
experts will put their heads together to invent technological
solutions to some fishing-related problems.

Seattle
Fishackathon, which is Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 10 and 11, is
still looking for developers who can design and code/build a
project, mentors who have expertise in fishing and outdoor issues,
and volunteers who can help run the event. Teams can organize in
advance and bring any hardware if they plan to build a device.

On Sunday afternoon, spectators are free to watch the
demonstrations of projects developed during the weekend. The
location is Epicodus vocational school, 1201 Third Ave., in
downtown Seattle.

Among the 11 formal “challenges” are these problems looking for
solutions:

Easy access to rules: With all the regulations
governing fishing today, it is easy to get confused. Wouldn’t it be
nice when you’re out in a boat to pull out your smart phone and
obtain the fishing rules for that exact location? To meet the
challenge, designers are expected to use GPS to map the location on
the phone and link to local rules. Among other things, the app
would be capable of sounding an alarm if the boat drifts into a
closed area.

The worldwide winner of the
2016 Fishackathon was a team from Taipei, Taiwan, which developed
an inexpensive sensor that can alert authorities to spawning
activities by invasive Asian carp.

Fish identification: For people who have
trouble telling one fish from another, this proposed app would use
“facial recognition” technology to convert a picture from a smart
phone into a positive identification. By stamping the time and
location onto the photo, volunteer observers or anglers themselves
could help build a database to assist fisheries managers.

Illegal fishing detectors: The goal is a
network of small, unobtrusive and inexpensive floats containing
electronic equipment that could be deployed over large areas where
poaching is suspected. The equipment would include a listening
device and software able to distinguish the sound of fishing
activity. It could make an audio recording and transmit its
location via satellite. A network of such devices would allow for
triangulation to the location of the fishing boat, allowing
enforcement officials to determine whether the fishing is legal.
The equipment could make ocean patrols by authorities far more
efficient.

Condition alerts: Fishers and other outdoor
enthusiasts would have access to an app for sharing environmental
information with authorities and each other in real time. For
someone who wants to make a report, the app would call up the
location on an interactive map for the person to mark the extent.
One could report environmental problems, including algae blooms,
fish kills, oil spills, invasive species, and high wind and waves.
It could also be used to report conditions at boat ramps, crowded
parks, availability of restrooms and poaching activity. The app
could also receive reports from others.

Teams may come up with their own concepts, provided they follow
the guidelines spelled out on the Fishackathon
website.

In 2016, a team from the
Monterey Bay Aquarium developed a basic app for helping fishermen
follow local regulations in the Philippines.

Fishackathon is coordinated by HackerNest, a nonprofit
organization of 75,000 technically inclined people in communities
throughout the world. The event was originally supported by the
U.S. State Department, which turned it over last year after three
annual events, according to Colombe Nadeau-O’Shea, an organizer for
HackerNest.

The event is run entirely on donations, and the group is always
looking for sponsors, whether it be for the national program or
local events, she said.

Amazon Web Services, a primary sponsor, is offering $5,000 to
the top winner in each city and $25,000 to the global winner
selected among all the city winners. Other prizes are offered at
the global level and in some cities.